Nowhere near as impressive as Ken’s recent outings to the Grand Casse or Mont blanc but last Friday I got back from Geneve around 9.30pm (due to the incessant SNCF strikes) and Luc had called asking if I was free for the next morning. He had work at midday and I had an appointment at 2pm so that worked out fine. We decided to head up to Prabert as the road is now open and ended up parking at 1300m at the Pont de la Betta.

There had been about 40cm of fresh snow over the last few days but it appeared most of the steeper slopes had purged - the north faces of the Scia and Sifflet were no longer serious ski propositions. As it was already getting warm (at 8am) we decided to stick to the shaded east side of the Venetier valley and climb to the Dent du Pra. Snow was hard but there was a lot of avalanche debris. Luc climbed on skis with harscheisen but I decided to go on foot up the avalanche debis. It felt quite secure on this 35-40 degree slope. The south Belledonne looked fantastic.

It was wind in the suspended valley that leads to the Pra and we encountered some fresh snow. A lot of snow was being moved north-south. At the summit we talked with some boarders who had climbed via the Aigleton, our prefered descent route. They told us that on climbing they had been able sink ski poles down to hand level. Not a good sign on this warm east facing slope.

We saw a couple descending ropes up, possibly training for glaciated routes later in the season. It was a bit stressful listening to the French geezer barking instructions at his female partner.

On the boarder’s advice we decided to ski down the main valley towards the Riviers d’Allemont then reskin to climb to the Aigleton. The snow was nearly transformed although on one turn Luc triggered the top 5cm of snow which slid right down the slope. The 100m extra climb took us about 10 minutes. At the col d’Aigleton it was very windy again. We crossed some girls who obviously were not prepared for the hurrican that would greet them at the pass.

The ski down was in great snow conditions. The main problems were all the old tracks that were only partially filled in. Luc is training for some 45km marathon through the mountains in May and I was glad to keep up with him on the climb.